Paper Cranes & Thai Chicken
by waterbaby134
Summary: Spending a little time with Jane makes Lisbon realize some things she'd rather not admit to. Drabble. One-shot. Jisbon of course.


**Setting: Mid to late Season One**

**Rating: K+**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. Never have. Never will. Although, we Australians do have a slight claim to Simon Baker. Only kidding. :)**

It was Monday morning at the CBI. For the most part, things were fairly quiet. The Serious Crimes team had just put their latest case to bed and everybody was looking forward to a thoroughly uneventful day at the office.

Lisbon walked through the door a little later than usual, to find Van Pelt, Rigsby and Cho working their way through the backlog of paperwork that had accumulated through the duration of the case. Jane of course, was stretched out comfortably on his couch with his eyes closed, the picture of innocence. So Lisbon immediately smelled a rat.

She paused at the door to her office, unsure of what she might find inside. Ever since Jane had joined her team, she had been subjected to her fair share of unpleasant surprises, not least of which had been a live pony standing in her office. She glanced over her shoulder at her consultant, apparently asleep, but one couldn't be sure of anything where Patrick Jane was concerned.

She took a deep breath, and opened the door. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. No animals (always a good sign) and no other 'surprises' as far as she could tell. She chanced another quick look over at Jane and thought she saw a hint of the smug, I-know-something-you-don't–know smile that she hated so much. She shook her head to clear it. She was being paranoid, she decided and resolved to put the matter out of her mind for the rest of the day.

From his couch, Patrick Jane chuckled quietly to himself. He'd been watching the whole thing. He actually hadn't done anything to Lisbon's office today, but it intrigued him to see her carefully surveying the office, apparently convinced that he had. Taunting Lisbon was always fun, but it was even more fun to be able to drive her crazy by doing nothing at all. But now she had shut her door, he would not be able to watch her any longer. He figured that he might as well go to sleep for real now. There was nothing better to do.

TWO HOURS LATER

Lisbon was making very little headway on her paperwork for the day, including a write-up of Jane's latest escapade, which had involved a run-in with several heavily armed bikies at a bar. She sighed as she finally signed off on the report. Soon the man would have an entire filing cabinet to himself.

As head of the unit, she often felt that she should be doing more to keep him under control but was at her wit's end as to how she should go about it. He seemed not to care whether he lived or died and had no qualms about putting others at risk when he wanted to prove a point. Many times, she had considered trying to get him transferred to another unit but there were two significant drawbacks to this plan. Firstly, it was highly unlikely that any of the other unit heads would want Jane on their teams and secondly well… she'd miss him.

If she had to be honest with herself Lisbon had gotten quite used to Patrick Jane's presence in her team. The consultant had never been wrong about a suspect yet and while his methods were somewhat questionable, she never failed to be amazed at his brilliance.

And then there was the fact that he was undoubtedly rather handsome, roguishly charming, self-assured to the point of arrogance and at times, even sweet. (She still had that little origami frog that he'd made her, hidden in her desk drawer.) In fact, under different circumstances she accepted that she might eventually have developed a little crush on him.

That was neither here nor there, however. CBI employees were forbidden to date one another and she knew he was still very much in love with his wife, the fact he still wore his wedding ring was proof enough of that. She feared what would happen when they finally caught up to Red John. She wasn't sure that she would be able to stop Jane before he did something she _knew _he would regret.

A tap on the door jerked her out of her thoughts. "Come in," she answered. Rigsby poked his head through the door, informing her he was going to get lunch for everyone, and would she like anything? She shook her head and thanked him. He shrugged and disappeared again.

"Now, Lisbon," a voice said. "It's very unhealthy to skip meals you know." She was annoyed, but not surprised, when she looked up to find Jane leaning against the doorframe sporting that infuriating smile. She scowled at him. "Did I invite you into my office?" she asked irritably. "Of course not," he said. "I invited myself." It was times like this that Lisbon wondered what she saw in Patrick Jane, who flashed her a mega watt grin as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at her desk.

Lisbon was tired, her head was pounding and therefore her patience was somewhat diminished this afternoon. She massaged her temples wearily, hoping that he wouldn't notice. No such luck.

Concern crossed Jane's face. "Headache, my dear?" he asked. She glared at him, which served no purpose other then to make her head throb all the more. "I'm fine," she said shortly, wishing he would go away. She was in no state to withstand his mind games at the moment.

Bing! The grin was back. "You're lying," he said. "Brilliant deduction," she responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm. He chuckled, and she tried not to notice the way it made his eyes twinkle. "Didn't anyone tell you?" he asked. "I'm a mind-reader. I know these things."

"Oh yeah?" she shot back. "Then what am I thinking right now?" He sighed, and then leaned back luxuriously in his chair. "Oh Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon. Are you sure you want to go there? As I recall, the last time was a little uncomfortable." She cursed at her own stupidity. The last time her handsome consultant had tried his hand at 'reading her mind' she had ended up blushing like a schoolgirl with a crush in front of her very amused team.

To avoid answering, she opened her desk drawer and began rummaging around for some painkillers. Jane was silent as she did this and she ignored his gaze, scrutinizing her every move as she hunted around. Her search yielded no results and she angrily slammed the drawer shut.

Rigsby knocked on the door. "Here's yours Jane," he said, holding out a paper bag. He took the bag and handed Rigsby some crumpled bills to pay for his food. Bringing it back to the desk, he pushed it towards Lisbon. "Eat," he commanded. "But this is yours," she pointed out, perplexed. He shrugged. "Wasn't hungry. Which is why I took the liberty of ordering lunch for you." She peeked in the bag, and sure enough, found a selection of all her favourite Thai foods. It smelled great, and all of a sudden Lisbon realised how hungry she really was.

She picked up chopsticks and started to eat. He smiled as he watched her dig enthusiastically into the Thai chicken. "You know, if you ate a little more regularly, you wouldn't get so hungry," he remarked casually. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Just that I worry about you, Lisbon," he said seriously. "You work so hard, that you forget to take care of yourself. So I figured I could do it instead."

Lisbon was disgusted to feel her heart give a little flip at these words. She couldn't possibly be going soft on Patrick Jane. Could she?

"Thanks," she said. "But I can look after myself." He laughed. "Are you sure about that? Tell me, when did you last have a decent meal?" Lisbon mulled that over for a minute or two and was shocked to realize that it had been almost four days since she had last eaten something that even came close to being nutritious. Jane seemed to already know the answer and didn't ask anything more as she reached for the other cartons.

"Feel better?" he asked later as she threw the rubbish into the bin. "I do actually," she said, surprised. "Even my headache is gone." He grinned. "Never underestimate the healing powers of good food and even better company." "I hope you're not referring to yourself," she teased. He looked shocked. "Me? Of course not. I was talking about a certain amphibian friend of yours, currently residing in your drawer."

She could feel her face turning red. While she was very grateful for Jane's heightened observational skill at work, she resented his constant intrusions on her personal life. It was impossible to hide anything from him; he was like a walking lie detector. She was sure he was going to make something out of this, like suggesting that by keeping the frog, Lisbon was harbouring feelings of attraction towards him. Which was of course, ridiculous.

Or so she kept telling herself.

"Really Lisbon, I'm flattered," he said, grin firmly in place. "You're normally so reluctant to accept gifts from me, like that jewellery set I bought for you. I was utterly heartbroken when you returned that to the store." "Rubbish," she shot back. "You just had to do something with all that money you were winning, so you bought out a jewellery store in about five minutes." She was surprised to see the grin disappear at these words; in fact he looked a little wounded. "Lisbon I spent about an hour in that shop, picking that out for you. Do you think it was just luck that the shade of emerald complemented your eyes so perfectly?"

The blush from before had only just been beginning to recede, and now it was back in full force. Really, she thought, it should be illegal for anybody to be that devastatingly charming. It just wasn't fair.

She had to get him out. She needed some time to get her head together and get her pulse back under control, otherwise she could not be held responsible for what happened next.

It took ten minutes and two threats of bodily harm before she was able to shoo Jane out of her office. To avoid further interruptions, she locked the door behind him. As she turned back around, she caught of something on her desk that had certainly not been there before. It turned out to be a little origami crane and she supposed he'd slipped it on to her desk without her noticing.

She smiled in spite of herself as she studied the little paper bird, and felt a sudden rush of affection for Patrick Jane. What scared her the most however, was that feeling did not go away. She moaned in frustration. Her headache was back with a vengeance and that wasn't even the worst of it.

She was in love with Patrick Jane. Things could only go downhill from here.

MEANWHILE…

Looking through a gap in her office blinds, Jane watched as Lisbon discovered the crane he had made for her. She picked it up and examined it, turning it over and over in her fingers and he was pleased to see her smile.

He loved her smile, and he didn't get to see it nearly often enough. That was why he made her origami animals and bought her lunch. He hadn't been lying before; he thought his boss worked herself far too hard and as a result, he had taken it upon himself to try and lighten her load. It was the least he could do he felt, as he was fully aware that he tried her patience on occasion.

Despite his liking for getting on her nerves, he had a bit of a soft spot for Lisbon, something he hadn't felt for a long time. However, he wasn't sure he was ready to act on it yet, and so contented himself with being her friend for the moment.

When he looked to the future, all he could see was Red John. He'd never paused to think about what life would be like when he finally achieved his goal. It had only been recently that he had begun to wonder what his purpose in life would be. Whenever he tried to picture it, Lisbon always seemed to come to the forefront of his mind.

Interesting.

**My first attempt at a Mentalist fanfic. I'm not sure if I captured Lisbon the right way but I've done my best. Any reviews would be very much appreciated. **


End file.
